Theme Recipe: Snow Cream

SNOW ICE CREAM

Of course, you only make this in areas where it actually snows and, then, only in the winter obviously.  But shaved ice can be used in a pinch.  This is for the real deal.

1 gallon snow (well frozen, not "melty"), caught in a clean bowl placed outside when it starts snowing.

1 cup sugar

2 cups whole milk (about, this depends on the consistency of the snow and on individual tastes)

1 tsp. real vanilla extract

Take the bowl of snow add the sugar to start dissolving and stir well, add the vanilla extract, stir again.  Add the milk, a little at a time, to stir until you get the desired consistency.

VARIATIONS:

Fresh lemon is a great addition to this!!  But any kind of fruit juice that you like will work.  The concoction is particularly suited to citrus.

Chunks of fresh fruit are great additions.  Native American food historian/native wild edibles expert as a recipe in her very readable Enduring Harvests for a "Raspberry Snow Cream" made from real snow--it's kind of like a lite sherbet.  But she also mentions that other fruit works, such a buttery fresh papaya or even melon.  I think watermelon would work well.  They make something quite like this out of Sandia (watermelon) in the Pueblos of New Mexico.

Hawaiian Shave Ice:

You will need a special machine for this.  I used to have one, but lost it in a long distance move, and days like this, when the current temperature has just hit 100 degrees F. I really, really, really miss it.  The machine comes with it's own flavors and they are OK, but home flavoring is much more fun.  The machine also comes with little round containers to freeze water into just the right shape for shaving.  This is all well and good, but the machine does a great job with plain ice cubes.  You only need the special round shape if you have an authentic Hawaiian hand cranked shave ice machine.

So basically you are making a fancy snow cone.  If the machine is indeed electric (and almost all of them are) then you just add ice, place a container underneath, replace the top of the machine and presto, shave ice.

You treat it like snow for instant ice cream, flavor it with the syrups made for the machine, or create your own flavors from fruit juices and/or fresh fruit.

Actual Shave Ice from Hawaii

One of the world's strangest snow cones of all time is actually a kind of shave ice.  Though shave ice stands in Hawaii popped up in Native Hawaiian food stands when electric freezers were brought to the islands, the tradition of shave ice actually is quite ancient in Japan.  This is why Japanese Hawaiian food stalls all over the islands have the Adzuki Bean Shave Ice.  Adzuki beans are small, very hard, red beans native to Japan.  Although they have a savory use, they are more often used in Japanese desserts (yeah, they actually have them).  You may have seen "Red Bean Ice Cream" on the menus at Japanese restaurants (along with Green Tea Ice Cream)--well, that's a remarkably good ice cream made from these beans.  But only in Hawaii are they used on snow cones!!!  But, then again, they make sushi out of Spam there too!  This is what it looks like.

Not terribly appetizing in appearance, but I have been told that it is actually quite delicious and is extremely popular!

AGAIN, THE THINGS PEOPLE WILL DO WITH FOOD!